My Mother went almost directly to the kitchen when my family arrived. I had to insist, several times, that she actually let somebody else do the work for a change. Then Isabelle offered and I had to insist that she was not the 'somebody else' I was referring to. She and Magnus were both banned from interfering. When my attempts at finding a polite way of saying it faltered, Max was quick to step in and tell our sister her cooking was a health hazard. A little mean, but at least Izzy was so distracted telling him off that she left the kitchen alone.
"I wouldn't be concerned." Camille smiled endearingly at her. "Your talents lie elsewhere, mon petit."
It was maybe a little concerning how quickly Cam could earn the trust of impressionable teens. Izzy played it off well but I could tell it impacted her when the actress called her talented. She had a sort of glow.
Under his breath, I overheard my Father say something which sounded a lot like 'frivolous', but I couldn't be too sure. He was a little bit occupied trying to get my brother's new games console hooked up to the Magnus' big TV. My parents were not very tech-savvy people. I was mildly surprise they'd even let Max have the videogames he'd asked them for.
"Is she very good?" Ralf asked, the only person in the room who had never seen Izzy in action. The newcomer seemed a lot more relaxed when Cam was with him.
Actually, she was practically on him, but that's neither here nor there. The Scott brother had been sending the occasional look at Magnus, which was probably a jealousy-check, but he didn't seem to find what he was looking for. Obviously.
"She is fabulous." Magnus grinned. He was completely oblivious to being under scrutiny, much too busy going around the room refilling wine glasses. Whenever Max tried to sneak his glass in he managed to swiftly tilt the bottle out of the way, which was fairly impressive.
"Beyond fabulous." Cam added between sips which if anything were only serving to make her more graceful. Which was just completely unfair. "She'll take audiences by storm."
I butt in with a comment about how all the praise was going to go to my little sister's head, because what is family time without a little teasing? I tugged on Izzy's hair for good measure before she knocked my hand away. She'd put curls all the way through, which must have taken forever. They were a little stiff where she'd put in a tonne of hairspray.
Max started laughing. His rosy cheeks told me that there was a good chance he'd managed to get a little drink after all. Tipsy or not, he still seemed to know a lot more about where the different cables went than my Father did. When he wasn't looking Max plugged something in and the TV screen flared to life. Father seemed perplexed that everything was suddenly working.
Usually Mother would have had a thing or two to say about being antisocial, but it wasn't as if Max had any other kids to talk to. He didn't much care about anything the grown-ups had to talk about. Frankly it was an excellent opportunity to play a little while the ladies, and Magnus, started talking about clothes for New Years. I wasn't too sure what it said about my taste in men that my boyfriend would rather stay in the girls-camp. My Father raised an eyebrow at me when we overheard him mention nail polish. I could only shrug because frankly I barely understood Magnus' interests at the best of times.
"He's an eccentric." I admitted, as if it even needed saying.
"That's one word for it." Max teased. I unplugged his controller in response.
While he was fumbling to put it back in I had to dash into the kitchen before my Mother could edge her way in there. Sneaky. I wasn't about to admit that I might have forgotten to check if she hadn't gotten up. I was sure she knew, anyway. Parents didn't always gather when you were secretly dating your history tutor who wasn't really a tutor, but they damn sure knew if you ever messed up a domestic chore. In the interest of not messing up, I only let Magnus carry plates to the table when he came over to help.
I watched everybody taking their seats and tried to calculate if I'd set things up well enough. Were my parents separated enough that they wouldn't argue? Was Magnus far enough from Camille that their antics wouldn't turn morally disturbing?
"You're doing an amazing job, Darling." Magnus encouraged when he came over to collect the last of the plates.
He leant over the island to kiss me and the little worries didn't seem to matter anymore. I could enjoy myself and just let it be. Everybody else was doing just fine. Isabelle was ecstatic, even. I pulled Magnus towards the table before anybody noticed we were absent for too long.
The conversation had taken a turn back to Isabelle and her rapidly snowballing career.
"All credit to Alexei." Camille was waving her hand dismissively. It was funny to see her put on an attempt at modesty. I honestly wasn't sure that her heart was in it. "He's the best agent in the business."
"And he costs how much?" Father interjected. His mind was always more inclined to think in terms of finance. Which was dumb considering he avoided paying child support as long as he could.
"Alexei is costing you nothing." Camille assured my Father, although he did not look at all convinced. "After a few jobs he pays for himself."
"And who is covering the initial cost? You?" He asked.
"I do not believe in letting a person's funds at the age of seventeen define their future." Cam's voice turned to ice which froze everybody in the room. Magnus, notably, went particularly ridged and looked at his ex-wife imploringly before he settled into his seat.
"Cammie, less intense, please." He said. His voice was scratchy and he had to clear his throat afterwards.
Turning her bright eyes away from my Father, Camille looked at least like she wanted to be reproachful. Isabelle looked like she wanted to slap the man who engendered her in the face. Mother, well, I couldn't decide what was going on in her mind. Max didn't really seem to know what was happening; I think he was more confused about why we weren't eating than anything else.
"I'm incredibly sorry to have caused a rift in your home." Camille said, addressing me mainly, which felt strange and sort of ticked my Father off a little more. He probably felt more entitled to the apology. "I merely wished to help."
"Oh, you didn't cause the rift." My Mother sighed. "Robert just loves an excuse to be unhappy."
There it was. I had to know that it was coming. I could have seated them in different rooms and still ended up with a conflict arising. But instead of arguing back my Father said nothing. Believe me, we waited for it.
Eventually, it was Ralf who spoke up.
"Well, this smells great." He complimented stiffly, hoping to ease some of the tension in the room.
"And it's going cold." Max added, almost definitely tipsy and fed up with everybody arguing when there was food to be had.
I think that we were all a little fed up.
Without further ado – oh, alright, maybe a little ado – Christmas crackers were pulled and Isabelle forced everybody at the table to wear paper hats. And I mean everybody. Camille looked as if she'd been asked to perform spinal surgery when pressed to join in. When Ralf put it on her head for her she begrudgingly agreed to leave it there. But she did steal half of his dessert, so I suppose he paid for it in the end.
I liked seeing them together. I'd seen Camille torn to shreds because she didn't know how to play love as a two-person game. But they looked so happy, and they weren't scared when they were together. At one point I overheard Ralf telling her how excellent he thought it was that she put so much into helping people, which I guess I never really noticed beneath all Cam's glamour.
He saw it, though. He saw everything that was good about her, I could tell. Maybe she would make mistakes, then again maybe both of them would, I wasn't so sure that it mattered.
I looked around the table and thought about it. Everybody messed up every so often. Sometimes in a catastrophic, heart-breaking ways. Sometimes in little, inconsiderate ways. Sometimes in ways which didn't even feel like a mistake in the end. Because even though some things ended up the way we wanted them to, others…
Well. Most of the time things didn't. Which was just fine too.
I had come to believe that it wasn't important to always stick to the plan. At least, I didn't think so. Life could be a real mess. But it was a good mess; a mess where families fought a little and then laughed a lot. Where family could mean whatever you wanted it to mean weather it made sense or not.
So I guess that I couldn't pull off the perfect Christmas day for my imperfect loved ones. But from the interrupted morning to the very end, with Ralf carrying Camille's heels so she wouldn't trip and my Father carrying Max so nobody had to wake him. With my Mother getting tearful about what a grown-up she apparently thought I was and Isabelle pulling funny faces behind her back. With Magnus picking up the Chairman and letting him have some kitten-friendly leftovers. I found myself loving every wonderful, messed-up part of it.